I took a couple days out because a dude at work is lending me AWESOME MOVIES and AWESOME BOOKS n'shit
I went into a cold sweat when I read this title, fyi.
General stuff for drawing bodies:
I personally start with the neck and head, then draw a line of action and plot in the angle of the shoulders and hips, basically.
This way you can still use the head as a measure of proportion, but it won't seem too stiff.
I think you should work on gestures every now and then, as well as more involved realistic stuff.
Avoid posemaniacs actually, and browse nude stock images on Deviantart, if you can't attend lifedrawing classes. Really try and focus on the line of action and on getting the "feel" of the pose rather than being stuck on detail.
Then apply gestural sketching to things you actually want to finish, to give them more life.
When going for more detailed work, once you've got a gesture down, evaluate it in comparison to the photo / model. Look for shapes and landmarks. For example, see if you can find horizontal or vertical lines between parts of the body. Say, if someone's sitting down with their arm raised, their elbow might line up horizontally with their nipple. And their hand might line up vertically with their ankle. Looking for "hints" for positioning like that will increase your accuracy a lot.
When you're detailing, go slow, and really pay attention to shapes on the body. If you draw the shape for the arm and the torso, look really closely and make sure your angles match the model. If you get it wrong, do it again. At first you'll probably find yourself redrawing things a lot, and it'll probably take you three hours to do with a more experienced artist can do within thirty minutes, but that is okay. Speed will come with practice.
This is something I am trying to learn, because I keep trying to rush things when I am Not Experienced Enough.
I personally studied (VERY BRIEFLY, I admit) what's called the Reilly method, where you describe the core of the body in six lines, and use it to build forms on.
Here's a pretty light primer on it: http://mos.futurenet.com/pdf/computerart...bodies.pdf
I think some of Andrew Loomis' books go into the Reilly method; it's not the greatest method for accuracy, but it's brilliant for gesture and rhythm, which is what your drawing lacks most, for me. You'll improve your accuracy in anatomy by just practicing a buttload as I explained above, and familiarising yourself with the shapes the body is made of.
I feel I should clarify:
It is REALLY IMPORTANT to do both abstract gestural approaches (like the Reilly method) as well as more functional approaches, looking at form.
I didn't mean to imply that abstract approaches are going to make you awesome at convincing drawing - you need both to be able to draw convincingly.
I went into a cold sweat when I read this title, fyi.
General stuff for drawing bodies:
I personally start with the neck and head, then draw a line of action and plot in the angle of the shoulders and hips, basically.
This way you can still use the head as a measure of proportion, but it won't seem too stiff.
I think you should work on gestures every now and then, as well as more involved realistic stuff.
Avoid posemaniacs actually, and browse nude stock images on Deviantart, if you can't attend lifedrawing classes. Really try and focus on the line of action and on getting the "feel" of the pose rather than being stuck on detail.
Then apply gestural sketching to things you actually want to finish, to give them more life.
When going for more detailed work, once you've got a gesture down, evaluate it in comparison to the photo / model. Look for shapes and landmarks. For example, see if you can find horizontal or vertical lines between parts of the body. Say, if someone's sitting down with their arm raised, their elbow might line up horizontally with their nipple. And their hand might line up vertically with their ankle. Looking for "hints" for positioning like that will increase your accuracy a lot.
When you're detailing, go slow, and really pay attention to shapes on the body. If you draw the shape for the arm and the torso, look really closely and make sure your angles match the model. If you get it wrong, do it again. At first you'll probably find yourself redrawing things a lot, and it'll probably take you three hours to do with a more experienced artist can do within thirty minutes, but that is okay. Speed will come with practice.
This is something I am trying to learn, because I keep trying to rush things when I am Not Experienced Enough.
I personally studied (VERY BRIEFLY, I admit) what's called the Reilly method, where you describe the core of the body in six lines, and use it to build forms on.
Here's a pretty light primer on it: http://mos.futurenet.com/pdf/computerart...bodies.pdf
I think some of Andrew Loomis' books go into the Reilly method; it's not the greatest method for accuracy, but it's brilliant for gesture and rhythm, which is what your drawing lacks most, for me. You'll improve your accuracy in anatomy by just practicing a buttload as I explained above, and familiarising yourself with the shapes the body is made of.
I feel I should clarify:
It is REALLY IMPORTANT to do both abstract gestural approaches (like the Reilly method) as well as more functional approaches, looking at form.
I didn't mean to imply that abstract approaches are going to make you awesome at convincing drawing - you need both to be able to draw convincingly.
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